


The Fool

by DarkJediQueen



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-15 05:58:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 22,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13024716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: James knew that he had messed up but getting back in Q's good graces was going to take everything that he had.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [3littleowls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/3littleowls/gifts), [Boffin1710](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boffin1710/gifts), [bordertravis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bordertravis/gifts), [Tsuyu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuyu/gifts), [Venstar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venstar/gifts), [QHolmes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QHolmes/gifts), [Dassandre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dassandre/gifts).



> THIS IS UNBETA'D and UNPLOTTED! I'm pantsing this fic!
> 
> Chapter length is between roughly 500-1500 words. If short chapters are not your thing, please don't read.

James Bond looked up at the entrance of MI6. It was time for his first look at Q for the day. Q came with a crowd of members of MI6. James frowned because Q already had a cup of tea in his hand which meant he wasn't going to stop at the cart that was outside of MI6. James turned the page in his paper and watched Q stop while the rest of the group kept going into MI6. Q waved them on as he pulled his phone from his pocket.

Q pressed the phone between his ear and his shoulder and started to speak. James felt his stomach sink when he saw the smile on Q's face and his happiness at whoever was calling. James folded up the paper and tucked it under his arm as he stood up. He fished his money out of his pocket and laid it down. James looked at Q that look of happiness that James had laid scene on Q's face the day that James had broken it off with him. Q had looked so happy to see James that night, but James had just stopped by to tell Q that it was over and if he would permit James to collect his things. Q had laughed at first, but when he realised that James meant it, he had given James such a gutted look. Q had told him to take his time and to lock up when he left. Q had gone into his little workshop room, and James heard the door lock.

It had been seven months since James had walked out on A and for two months, James had been happy. It was when the time had turned from two to three months that, James realised what he had done and regretted it. James had spent months four, five, and six abroad. It still didn't take away the pain of missing Q. So when James had come home, he had started a Q watch. James was guaranteed most days seeing him twice.

James had expected Q to go back to the way he had been before, near living at work but the younger man mostly kept the same schedule he had when there was James to come home to. Except there was no one there. James had followed him for a few days after he had come back to London. It seemed though now that Q had someone to go home to if that smile was anything to go by. James wondered if the man was from MI6. It wasn't like Q had a lot of time to meet other people.

The only place that Q spent any time at was the bar a block from his flat. James wondered if he went there if he would see Q with the new man in his life. Even James knew that he wasn't that much of a masochist. He looked at Q and saw that he was looking at his phone, swiping like he was looking at pictures. James wanted to destroy the phone, but all he did was leave.


	2. Chapter 2

Q felt like a giddy child as he left MI6 that day. He clutched his phone tightly, the only tangible proof he had of what he was looking forward to. He saw Moneypenny standing beside a cab. She gave him a grin and ushered him into it with no words. Q had the next day off, and he was looking forward to spending the entire day in his flat. Moneypenny said nothing as Q folded himself down to get into the cab before she shut the door. Months had gone into research, and he had finally found what he wanted.

The trip felt like it took forever even though it only took twenty minutes. The driver was going to wait for Q so that he could take him back to his flat after he picked up his presents to himself. Q knocked on the door to the house that he had visited at least once a week for the last eight weeks.

Pipt was climbing the screen door trying to get to Q and Q couldn't help but grin at him.

"Hullo, Pipt!" Q said as a greeting to his kitten. He looked around for Woozy and found him at the base of the door trying to wiggle his paw under it.

"Findlay, welcome!" Lenora said as she opened the screen door to allow Q inside. Q scooped up Woozy as the kitten tottered at him and before the door was shut he had Pipt in his other hand. Pipt climbed Q's jumper to settle on his shoulder and purred into Q's ear. "As you can see they are more than ready to go home with you. Pipt has had no more accidents, and Woozy had not tried to get milk from his mother in two weeks now."

"Wonderful! Q said.

"I have their cage here. I have that blanket that you brought over with the smell of your cats on it, and I put it in the cage. I wasn't sure if you were going to be able to get off work in time so I didn't put them in the cage."

"Work was easy today."

"Your females are fixed?"

"Yes. I got them from a shelter, and they were already fixed. It'll be fine until the boys are old enough to be fixed in about two months." Woozy caught Q's hand and tried to bite at it in play, and Q looked down at him. Mombi and Ozma were not old enough to where they wouldn't appreciate having two kittens. Q had gone looking for one, but these two had made him fall in love since they had been born, so Q had bought the both of them. Lenora took in pregnant stray cats and raised the kittens and found homes for them. The only spent on the kittens was how much Lenora asked for when purchasing the cats. She also got them some necessary shots and had them checked out when they were old enough. Q had given her a lot more than she asked for to help her out.

Q had been lucky that she had taken in a pair of Norwegian Forest cats when he had been looking for two of them. The mother and the father had been given up when the mother had got pregnant. Q had come for a visit to see the kittens and Pipt had climbed into Q's lap, and from then on he was in love with the little guy. Woozy had been a little slower to warm to Q, but Q had adored watching him play with a foam ball from a microphone from a headset.

"They are ready to go, whenever you."

"Yes, I should get home to get my girls fed. My boss gave me tomorrow off so that I can be around for them getting used to each other." Q had brought Ozma and Mombi around for a visit to get used to the smell of the boys before he brought them home. Ozma had taken to the kittens well while Mombi had been standoffish. He knew that she would come around.

Q left Lenora's house with the cat carrier with his two new kittens inside of it. He was looking forward to going home and staying home for the first time in seven months.


	3. Chapter 3

James knew that he should never have gone to Q's flat. He knew of the perfect spot that he could sit in and watch the window in the kitchen. He saw Q standing there talking to someone who was behind him and smiling the whole time that he did it. James felt like such a fool. Q had stood by him after months of physical therapy and two different surgeries. Q had been the only bright spot, and after James had got the word from the doctor that there was nothing else to do to get him his range of motion back on his arm, James had pushed everyone away.

There was no future that James could see where Q wouldn't start to hate him for not being what he used to be. James could barely lift his arm up more than a few inches at the shoulder. To an average person, it would be something to deal with and move on, but with James, he had let it become his whole world. He regretted leaving, but he was afraid. James had never been afraid of anything, but he was scared of going up to Q and telling him that he wanted him back. Seven months was a long time to move on.

James was torturing himself with watching Q be happy. There was nothing to do for James but watch. If he never asked, he would never know, but he would also never be turned down.

The chime on his phone had James looking away from Q's flat window for a few seconds. It was Alec. Another person that he had cut himself off from but Alec texted him all the time. Alec tracked him down once in France too.

Your Boffin has lost a stone according to the gossip I did not get while screwing the head nurse.

James looked back up at the window to see that Q was still there, still talking to whoever it was. He put his phone up and started across the street, but he stopped when he saw three black SUVs turn down the road. James stared as they parked in front of Q's complex. James watched as four men got out of each wearing tactical gear and guns in hand. All of them had masks.

Pulling out his phone, James texted Alec back a picture of the men and the SUVs and telling him to get every damned agent to Q's flat ASAP. James only had a single gun on him and a single extra clip. He ran down the block and around to the side where he knew a neighbor never locked their gate. He might be able to make it up the back stairs before the apartment was breached because Q was the only person that could be their target.


	4. Chapter 4

Q heard the alarm for guns being brought through the complex. He touched a screen on his wall in his kitchen and saw men in black coming up the stairs that led up the front of the building. He checked the back and saw that it was empty. He was the only target in the building that would get an armed team like that. Q dropped the spoon he had been stirring his dinner with and turned off the fire. He scooped up Pipt and Woozy who were eating their food on the floor and gave a low whistle. Ozma and Mombi easily scampered toward him. Q opened his closet and tossed the kittens into it to land on the piles of clothes in the bottom. His two older cats jumped in, and he shut the door. The closet was soundproofed. Q grabbed his gun and killed all of the lights in the apartment from a single switch. He grabbed his glasses that were tied into the system in the house to show heat. Q's flat was well protected. He grabbed his phone and sent an alert to Moneypenny that he had armed intruders and tossed the phone onto his bed. His bedroom was the best place to stay. He had a line of sight of the door, and it was reinforced. Q had done a lot to his flat over the years that no one knew anything about. Other than James. James didn't know everything though.

The first person through the door got gassed in the face, and the two behind were so close and moved so fast that they were hit as well. Q waited for them to be cleared before he readied the next defense. The rug just inside the door would catch at least two of the men entering the flat. He waited until the first was about to step off, and he charged it. The rug was made of cloth that was woven into strands, but it hid metal spikes. Q hit the button for it and heard the men scream in pain before he hit the next button and the mat electrocuted them. Q watched three fall. He had no clue how many were coming, but six down without Q coming out of his room was good. He grabbed his tablet and waited. He could see the men hovering at the door, waiting. Q leveled his gun and took a shot at the man coming in next. He fell dead with a bullet in his skull. The next two came in quick but not quick enough. Q could see them perfectly in his glasses and killed them as well.

Only an arm was seen on the next man, and Q watched as a ball of some kind was rolled into the room. It started to spit gas and heat up. Q just waited because he could see the men through the smoke. He waited for three more to enter and begin to sweep the apartment before he killed the one in the middle. The two on the edges turned toward where he was, but he shot them as well. Q didn't have the best marksman score for a handgun within MI6 for fun. That was twelve dead. Q reloaded his gun and waited.

Four men entered next, and Q waited for them to start their full sweep before he hit the switch to turn on all of the lights again. The men exclaimed because they were wearing night vision goggles. Q shot two of them before they could react and then grabbed a smaller handgun that was already out and waiting and just as the men were starting to blink in the light, he shot them with the dart gun. That was four men that could be interrogated.

Q waited to see if anyone else started to come in and was about to move from his spot at the door when someone did. Q slammed the lights off and lined up a shot. The person was crouching and entering a lot slower than the others had. Q wondered if the others had been cannon fodder and this was the real person that was after Q. Q swapped back to his other gun.

Shot lined up, Q started to squeeze the trigger when he caught sight of an ear on the man. He looked down at the tablet and had it run facial recognition. It was James. Q's gut churned, and he laid his gun down and drew the dart gun again. He didn't hesitate as he pulled the trigger and Q watched James reach up with his good arm that held a gun to remove the dart from his skin before he collapsed.


	5. Chapter 5

James didn't like waking up and not knowing where he was. He hated waking up feeling drugged more. Before James moved, he tried to remember why he was drugged. The first thing that he remembered was that he had gone to Q's to try and get a peek at the new man in his life.

"I know you are awake, Bond," Q said.

James opened his eyes and looked around the room, ignoring Q sitting in a chair with a tablet in his lap until James had figured out where he was. He was in that damned clear cage. James looked down at his hands to see that he wasn't just in cuffs, but he was a pair of leather cuffs that wouldn't have been out of place in the bedroom if the cuffs weren't connected and tight as hell.

"The drug you were given is going to make you feel like shit for about five more hours. The injection site had been taken care of by medical."

"Q," James started but stopped when Q looked up at him. Q stood up, and James saw the gun that was strapped to his hip. That sent the rest of the night flooding back to James's mind. He remembered the men and hearing the shots and freaking out until he saw the pile of bodies outside of Q's apartment.

The door opened behind Q and Tanner came inside with a kitten in his hands.

"Pipt wouldn't stop crying," Tanner said as he handed over the kitten to Q.

"He's still a little freaked out. I'll head back to Q-Branch." Q turned to leave and didn't even react when James called for him. The doors shut and James looked at Tanner.

"Q-Branch has been going over all of the footage from the entrance and exits of the building, and it only took about a day and a half for R to see you outside having breakfast every morning and then dinner. We have the five men who survived in interrogation. Q's of the mind that you sent them to take him or kill him but all I see when I see this." Tanner stepped up to the glass and slammed a picture into it. James saw himself looked gutted. "Is a man who made a mistake and is too scared to try and fix it. So Bond are you a lovesick fool or a traitor to Queen and Country?"

"I saw him talking to someone on the phone, and he looked like he used to look when talking to me or about me," was the only answer that Bond gave.

"Going by the date and the pictures that he showed all day that day, Q had just been told that his two new kittens were ready to go home. Pipt you just saw and his brother Woozy. He went and picked them up that night when he left work and was given the next day off to bond with them in their new place and to make sure that Ozma and Mombi didn't kill them. He's not moved on, Bond. In fact, I think that he'll never even try and date again. M and I are of the opinion that he's one of those people who only have a single love and if they are lost for any reason, they'll never love again."

Tanner's phone chirped, and he didn't say anything else but left, leaving James alone.


	6. Chapter 6

Q kept the feed for James's cell up on his monitor. He couldn't get over the fear of him. R was keeping something from, and he wanted to know what it was. Tanner had been smart and had the microphone in James's cell covered up so that Q couldn't hack and hear what was being said when he had been talking to him.

James kept staring at the camera as if he was willing Q to come back down to him, but Q had cut his ties with the man when he had fled from London in the wake of his injury. Q was drawn from watching James watch the camera with claws in his trouser leg. Woozy climbed up Q's trousers to get to his lap. Ozma and Mombi had Pipt in a little nest, but it seemed that Woozy had escaped from them. Q pulled him all the way into his lap.

There was a bit of work that R kept hidden on a partition that she thought Q didn't have access to, but he did. He let her keep that thought. Most of it was projects she didn't want the rest of the staff to know about until she was done. Q had his own projects like that. The newest was screenshots of the cafe that was close to the front of MI6. All of them with James circled and the dates and times circled as well. James had been stalking him. Q's gut started to churn. He didn't understand any of this.

Q grabbed his phone and sent off a short text. Seconds later another came, and Q started to pack up his things, including the cats. It was lunchtime, and there was no one in the branch as there were no active missions. All had been canceled and delayed when the attack on Q happened. Q slung his bag over his shoulder and grabbed the two cat carriers. He would be able to slip out. While his staff would be able to track him to the door he was going to leave through, none of them would be able to follow him without M's override and getting him quickly would be hard as he was at Home Office and would be while the origin of the men who attacked Q was traced.

At the exit of the tunnel, Q got into the backseat of the car that was waiting. He was a little shocked that it was empty, but he knew that it wouldn't be for long. Q strapped in his cats and knocked on the glass when he was ready. He had everything that he needed to work remotely, and he needed time to figure out everything that had gone on to lead to his flat being attacked and James Fucking Bond showing up during it.


	7. Chapter 7

"He's gone," Tanner said as he entered M's office. M had just got back from Home Office and had just got sat down at his desk.

"What?"

"Q-Branch tracked him out of the tunnels and into a car."

"How the bloody hell did Bond escape from that cell?" M stood up and was about to go down to Q-Branch himself to make sure that Q was just fine.

"Not Bond. Q. Q took a tunnel and left. Before you got back, the members of Q's team figured it out. They traced him to the tunnel he took and where they thought it led. Cameras in that area showed him getting out and getting into a car with his laptop bag and cats. The car was lost en route to wherever they were going, and the plate only goes back to one of the fleet of cars that serves the Queen."

M looked at Tanner and then looked at the computer. He had Q's file from Olivia Mansfield on paper in his safe, but he'd promised her never to look at it unless he had to. She had told him, promised him that there was no more loyal person to the Crown than him. He had taken her at her word, but now he wondered.

The file was at the bottom and M could feel Tanner's eyes on him the entire time that he flipped through it. The last name on record, Holmes was not that much of a shock. He looked a little more like the middle one than Mycroft. The shocking thing was that Q wasn't hired because of Mycroft, but it seems despite Mycroft. No, he was given a recommendation from another source.

"He'll be at Buckingham," M said as he sat down.

"The palace, Sir?"

"It seems that when he was a child and was at work with Mycroft Holmes, his older brother, by the way, he got lost and wound up in a room that he should have never been able to get into the way that he did. He charmed the Queen in the room, and when Mycroft and his entourage entered that room to have the meeting with her, they found him having tea and talking with her. Mycroft was mortified. She's put him through college it seems, despite Mycroft trying to keep Q and the Queen apart. According to his file, he emails her regularly."

"Dear God," Tanner said, and he sat down in the chair in front of the desk. M thought that those two words summed it up nicely.

"Has the money been traced?"

"Yes, Sir. A terrorist organization that Q it seems has been keeping from not only the MI6 and all of England's servers but almost every single major organization. They want him dead. There are two more people that had have taken the hit. It's a free for all, and I think right now the palace just might be the best place for him."

"Let's not have it known to anyone outside of this room that the palace is where he is. Bond will try and get to him there to finish whatever he started that had him standing outside of Q's flat to see the men try and enter."

"Yes, Sir. Mum's the word. I won't even think about it after I leave this room."

The silence wasn't bad, but it allowed M's mind to wander in places that it shouldn't. He started to laugh, and when Tanner looked at him, he just smiled and said. "I wonder how the corgis will like Woozy and Pipt."


	8. Chapter 8

Q settled into the room that he had been given and was glad that the connection in the room was as secure as it was going to get besides his own flat, still the scene of a crime, and MI6, where he couldn't think. The cats had been turned loose in the room next to him with food and water that had been bought when he had been traveling. Q debated opening the door between rooms but decided against it.

After Q's tea was delivered, no one would bother him, whether it was staff or otherwise until dinner time, so Q settled in to do his own research into James and what he was doing at Q's apartment just when the men were set to attack. The only footage that Q had seen showed James arriving at the building after the men were starting to breach the complex.

Q didn't start there though. He started after James had left him. Q tracked his digital footprint all over the world. James hadn't tried to hide his movements at all and Q still has a line on access to his bank account, so when Q lost him on transport that didn't take names, Q had to resort to going over his purchases.

There was a knock on the door, and Q stood up to open it. A servant was there with a tray of tea and a few biscuits. Q let the man with the tray, and he set it down with no comment and left. Q poured himself a cup and covered up the pot with a cozy. Q took a sip of the tea and sighed.

James Bond had always been a puzzle to Q, and it was part of why he had been so intrigued by the man before getting to know him. Q didn't like that James had been stalking him. He didn't understand why the man would do that. If it was just for finding the perfect moment to kill him or kidnap him, there were moments where he was more vulnerable. James knew that within his flat and within MI6 he was a master of the protection. James knew the safeguards and should have guessed that Q would not change things after he had left.

Q checked his phone. R was worried about him, but he only responded to texts from M and Tanner. M just asked him to have an escort when he left the palace, which confirmed that M had finally read his entire file. Mycroft texted him after the news had hit all of Home Office and was not happy that Q was so removed from where he could get to him. Even Mycroft needed an invitation to go to the palace.

The palace was a point of contention between the Holmes brothers. Mycroft hated that it was so removed from him and he hated that Q had full access whenever he wanted. There was also the incident of the first time that Sherlock had been brought there. The sheet. The Queen had found Sherlock parading around the palace in a sheet quite hilarious. She had sent the footage to Q.


	9. Chapter 9

By the time that James had been awake in the cell for nearly a day, he was going nuts. He had got enough out of the guards who delivered him meals and water that Q had left MI6 for safer pastures and but had yet to figure out where. James wasn't sure where that was.

Tanner was the one to bring him breakfast that morning. It was a full spread, but he didn't slide it into the hole at the bottom that would close and then raise the tray up. Instead, he opened up the cell and set the tray on the edge. James warily stepped over to grab it. James took a drink of the coffee first.

"We have tracked down the source of the attack on Q. It was totally external to England. He was stopping someone from doing what they wanted, and they wanted to take him out. We passed along what we found to the CIA since they have been after them for a while. R is monitoring to make sure that everyone is taken out and if not we have a few Double-O's ready to take it up and clean up."

James said nothing as he finished chewing the food in his mouth. He shifted to where his legs were dangling out of the cell, but Tanner said nothing. James braced the tray with his bad arm and looked up at Tanner. Who looked a little tired and like he needed a good stiff drink or five.

"So what about me?"

"Horrible timing on your part to be stalking Q outside of his home. R, M, and I feel that you are no threat to Q but Q is another thing. We've not had a chance to talk to him, and while he's responding to M and me, we aren't sure that he believes us. You should be thankful that he chose to pick up the dart gun again."

"What?" James asked, his mouth full of food.

"According to his verbal and physical report on the night, he had taken up his gun when he had seen you crouched at the door. He would have killed you if he hadn't recognized your ears."

James thought about that. He knew that he hadn't been thinking that night or he should have called out. Given though that it seemed that Q thought he was behind the team at the start, calling out wouldn't have helped. James should have waited for backup from MI6. The thought that Q's trust in him had been that shattered by James leaving him hadn't even crossed his mind.

The food that was left on the tray looked appetizing to James. He stepped out of the cell and laid the tray on the floor.

"You are free to go. Trevelyan found you some clothes so that you don't have to wander around MI6 in our prisoner garb. The clothes are in the bathroom just outside here. He will also escort you out of the building."

"My gun?"

"Has been confiscated. Even if you weren't rated to carry it. When going over all of your things, the serial number matches one from a mission that you reported as lost. It's MI6 property. Not yours."

"Would I be able to speak to M?"

"About?"

"That job offer that he made me."

Tanner sighed. He nodded. "I'll inform 006 that he's to take you to M's office."

Jame would take what he could get, and even if he and Q only became friends again, James would accept that. He had a lot of ground to make up though.

Alec was waiting out in the room outside the actual cell area. He had a grin on his face and a look of glee in his eyes at seeing James in MI6 prisoner garb. James wanted to punch him and if he thought that he could get away he might, but James wasn't in peak form at all.

"So, James. Your grand gesture to make Q at least look at you failed."

"I'm well aware, Alec." James went right to the bathroom to change. He wanted out of this, and he wanted out of it now. James knew that Alec would just wait on him outside the bathroom but at least the troublesome man didn't yell at him through the door.

Alec was right outside the door when James opened it at least looking like the man that he used to be even if he didn't feel it. The grin on the man's face said that he knew something that he thought James should know and that it was going to upset James.

"Spit it out."

"Q's eldest brother is here, and there is the rumor that he's upset with his youngest brother."

"Meaning there is at least another sibling out there. Who is it? He's got to have good access to get a meeting with M."

"Tanner called him Mister Holmes."

James groaned. Alec didn't care about politics, so he never remembered the names of the people that they met during their job.

"Do you remember that time that we covered the return of a family from vacation? Mother, father, above age son and two sons that were not?"

"Vaguely. We went to Rome right?"

"Yes. The above age son was Mycroft Holmes, and since then he's only roe up higher within the government. He answers to the Queen more than anyone."

"So that youngest brat was Q?"

"I would think so." James closed his eyes. Q had never said anything about it. Given Q's memory, James knew that Q knew that it was Alec and James. The youngest boy had followed James around like a puppy for the three final days of the vacation before escorting the Holmes's home. The boy had been way too intelligent for his own good.

"He was obsessed with your tech, remember? Tried to talk you into showing how to work your gun and if your earpiece did anything fun."

"He also weaponized the toaster to attack the middle one," James remembered that one fondly. Q had sat beside James on the couch as the toaster had attacked the middle one. The middle one had come running and stopped when he saw where Q was.

Mycroft had been twenty-two at the time, and James estimated that Q was about fourteen years younger than him. Q was eight. James had never thought about their ages. Q was competent at his job, but the fact that he had been twenty-two when James had started something with him made James now feel like a pervert.

"You have a meeting with M. Let's not be late."


	10. Chapter 10

Bill loved his job. He really did. M had been behind closed doors with Bond for half an hour, and when Bond had left, he looked like a child being sent to bed without supper. Then Mycroft Holmes had finally decided that wandering around MI6 was boring and went into this meeting with M. Bill had been forced to stay for that one. There had been talk of a few MI5 missions inside of the city limits that skirted the edge of things that MI6 was doing outside of England.

"Do you have confirmation that Q is inside the palace?" M asked after a few minutes of silence while Mycroft drank his tea.

"I do. The Queen called me herself. If she could I think she would adopt him as a child. She will not let me inside though to talk to him. Why did he go there? I know of the attack, but that's it."

"The attack is being dealt with. I read through his file and found that Q's first brush with MI6 came when your family was vacationing in Rome."

Bill actually started to pay more attention then. He had not been told that.

"Yes, two agents were assigned after a threat was made against me. The most danger that my family was in came from Q himself. He turned a toaster near lethal to take out Sherlock after Sherlock tried an experiment on him. Q was attached to the young blond-haired man who was with us. The one with blue eyes."

"What do you know about 007?"

"Besides the fact that he was retired out due to injury? Only what his file stated."

"Before that, he had been in a stable relationship. I thought that it would last that it would help to calm down 007. Until that injury. He left MI6 and his lover at the same time. He arrived back about a month ago and for all intents and purposes has been stalling the lover. This is 007." M tossed a picture at Mycroft. It glided across the desk and slid off right into Mycroft's hand. Mycroft's eyes shot up. "Yes, that is the same man. That infatuation that Q had with the ice blue-eyed agent at age eight turned into a full-blown love affair within a month of Q becoming Quartermaster."

"He is the one that broke Q's heart?"

"He did not tell you?"

"Q tells me little, and Sherlock forgets most of it before he can even think to tell me." Mycroft let the photo fall to the floor. "What's his name?"

"James Bond. He was the former M's most loyal agent. I think that he stayed for England and then truly did fall in love with Q. He's just never figured out how to not be an agent and when it was stripped from him, he ran."

"And he is back?"

"According to his own words, he will take whatever Q is willing to give him. He's sorted his mind out and wants Q back. He will settle for friends though. I gave him the job I had offered him after his injury, and he accepted on the understanding that if Q wants him gone, he'll go."

"I blame him for everything that my brother has done that has not been in my plan for him. I had hoped that by the time that Q was ten, he would forget about the two agents that he had met and stopped romanticizing the life but he did not."

Bill did not need to know any of this. He just needed to be told what to do. M and Mycroft thankfully switched to things that Bill needed to know as far as the failed merger between the branches of the SIS.

It was an hour later that Bill was released for the day and even though it was only after four, he went right to the pub that was close to his flat and toasted his own life being a caretaker for spies.

Bill was drunk enough when someone sat down beside him that he didn't look. He didn't care.

"So, Tanner," Trevelyan said as he took the seat on the other side of Bill. Bill looked to the other side and saw Bond. "We will buy your next round for bit of information."

"You want to know where Q is."

"James does."

"Well, he's under the protection of someone that is a little out of your reach."

"Who is out of our reach?" Bond asked.

"The Queen. M will have my bollocks for garters. Q is at Buckingham Palace, under the protection of the Queen while we take care of the terrorists who hired killers to take him out. I think that he thinks it's the only place that you can't reach him."

"How the bloody hell does that boffin get the protection of the Queen?"

"Charming her when he was a child."

Bill didn't pay attention to when they left only that when he looked up from his drink, there was money on the counter. More than was needed for his drink he had already had and more than enough to get him drunk off his arse. Someone would get him home. Drunk, he'd not think about the fact that Bond was on his way to the palace.


	11. Chapter 11

James groaned as he and Alec left the pub that they had found Tanner at. James knew that even with the Queen's affection for him after the things he had done to protect her and her family and even escorting her to the Olympics, he would not be allowed into the palace. He wasn't sure that Q didn't tell her not to let him in no matter what. 

There was a lot that could be done to get ready for when Q finally left the palace. Things that James wanted to do and things that he wanted to say, but he needed Q there first. 

"So what's next?" Alec asked. 

"We can go back to Q's flat."  
"And you get your ass handed to you again?" Alec asked.

"No. I want to talk to Q. The only way to do that is to make sure that he has to talk to me. We got drunk one time before this was serious and he told me about something that an ex of his had done to get his attention. It was at Uni, and it had been hilarious. So this will show him that I was listening to him before."

"Or get you thrown in jail for breaking and entering, again," Alec deadpanned.

James stopped and turned to look at him. He glared, and Alec only stared back. "You can go."

"Oh, no. I want to see if the boffin's security system knocks you on your ass."

James sometimes wondered why he was friends with Alec until he remembered that Alec always backed him up on the stupid things that he did. Just like he backed up Alec when he had another small fire at a flat or went drinking and started a fight. Alec was his brother, in arms and in everything else. 

Key in hand, James let himself into the flat. The key overrode all other security. There was something in the metal, and it had gone slightly over James's head the night that Q had told him about it. Computers James could understand but something about metal that was biomechanical or something. James saw that someone, probably Tanner, had made sure that the flat was cleaned up. There was no evidence of anything that had happened. 

"It's nice," Alec said. 

James just snorted before he moved back toward the room that had been his place. The one room in the flat that was his no matter what. Q had never bothered him when he was in there. James pushed the door open and found the room exactly as he had left it. Hell, his T-shirt that he had been wearing the morning he had got the call was still draped over the treadmill that Q had redesigned for him. There was a large TV that allowed him to watch the news, or whatever he wanted in front of the treadmill. James had removed it to fuck Q on the mat in the middle of the room. 

Q had never asked of James more than he could give and in the end, James had not given Q everything that he had. James wanted to change that now.


	12. Chapter 12

Bill felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Eve.

"I thought I might find you here."

"My life would go so much better if people just stayed where we put them." Bill let his head drop and he closed his eyes. Eve sat down beside him. "Bond left me money for drinks. I think there is enough left for one of your drinks."

Eve laughed. Bill didn't move at all. He dropped his head back down into his arms. The world spun a little less that way. 

"Q went where he thought he was safe from everyone who would even think of wanting him. We have to trust that he knows what he is doing." The tone of Eve's voice said that she didn't like it either. 

"Bond couldn't stay gone? Q shook like a leaf when he thought that Bond had been why he had been attacked. He's the reason that Q fled MI6. I don't know if it's because he thought that we would release him because it's Bond."

"As much as Q trusts everyone to do their job, I don't think he's ever had someone not betray his trust in a personal way. He didn't even go to his family. I heard the scuttlebutt that his brother came after he had left. I only saw Mister Holmes."

"You are the worst gossip inside of MI6. Yes, Q is a Holmes." Bill laid his head back down, not realizing that he had lifted it. "The last time that someone left where we had left them, Skyfall blew up, and M died."

"You really think that the terrorists are going to send someone to the palace to kill Q?"

"No. But people should stay where we put them!" Bill was loud with that, and he felt his drink removed from his hand. He raised his head enough to where he watched Eve down it as well as the glass of her own that he hadn't realized that she had actually got. 

"Come now, Bill. Let's get you home and in bed. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be horrific. With Bond and Trevelyan out and about, I think we are going to regret not sending Trevelyan on that mission and sending 004 so that Trevelyan could keep an eye on Bond."

"I don't think I can walk."

"I'm sure you can." Eve pulled Bill up from his stool, and he was a little shocked that she could hold him up while he figured out if his legs were going to work. He sighed and slid one foot out. Bill was sure that as long as he didn't lift up his foot, he would be fine. Shuffling was the name of the game, and it was a game that Bill was going to get good at or Eve would leave him to sleep wherever he fell.

The next morning, Bill woke up in his bed, stark naked but thankfully alone in bed. His mouth felt like a sewer. There was a glass of water on the nightstand and a pile of pills for him to take. Bill down them and checked his phone. He found his phone and was happy that Eve had plugged it in. There were no messages even though Bill should have already been at work. There was a note written under the glass though and found it was from Eve that she had already told M not to expect him in on time. 

Bill was not looking forward to going to work.


	13. Chapter 13

Q knew that the Queen would let him stay in the castle as long as he wanted. She had heard about the attack on his flat and had been very upset until he had texted her head guard. The cats, on the other hand, wanted to go home. Tanner had texted that his flat was entirely cleaned up but that no one had known how to reset the traps he had or rewire anything. So Tanner had made sure the place was locked up. Q knew that James had been released because he had been cleared and it had just been a really horrible case of wrong place at the wrong time.

There was still the footage of James stalking him though. That still had Q upset. He didn't know what he felt about James stalking him for a month. Even with subpar cameras from cameras that were not made by Q-Branch, it was easy to see the longing on James's face. James had been gone from Q's life for seven months, and every day there was an ache there where the agent had been. Mombi had taken two months to stop waiting by the door for James to come home. She hunted the place over for James's clothes and things. There was a pair of James's shoes that Mombi had loved to lay on and would lay on them while they were still on James's feet. Q had gone out and bought another pair, but she wanted nothing to do with them.

For months, Q hated James for breaking Mombi's heart as he did as well as Q's. There was no way to explain to a cat that someone was gone and never coming home. Q wondered how a parent a human child did it. At least a child could be reasoned with, but he was sure that it was hard.

Once bitten, twice shy came to Q's mind as he walked the hidden garden inside the castle. The weather was actually sunny for once, and Q didn't know what to do with himself. He was going stir crazy being locked away, but he feared going out there to where James could just find him. Especially since James had been hired back to MI6 as a recruiter and trainer for agents. M had tried to shuffle the paperwork to where there was no actual name, but Q was the one who oversaw the vetting of new hires, and when no vetting came through, it meant that it was someone moving from one department to another. Even without an actual file with a name, it wasn't hard to get that it was James being hired in as a trainer. No agents were retiring, and former agents were the only ones employed as trainers.

There was a clause of some kind that was on file for James but not in his digital hiring packet, so it was something that M didn't want Q seeing even if he figured out that it was James. The timing if nothing else was suspect. Q didn't like it, but he would live with it. There were people from other departments that were not allowed in Q-Branch and James could be added to that list. Steve from accounting wasn't permitted in Q-Branch because the man couldn't keep his hands to himself and it was how he had shot himself in the foot with a prototype pen gun. It had been loaded with a single bullet to fire on the range that was within the branch, but a severe digital attack had happened so Q had left the gun on his desk and Steve had started to fiddle with it while waiting for Q to go over budget paperwork with him. Q had called it serving the man right, but HR had not felt the same. Q-Branch didn't have the same rules as standard branches, and it was well known not to touch anything, especially in the Quartermaster's office, that had been in place since World War II. Deaths from poisons had happened then.

HR had tried to raise a stink about a loaded weapon laying on a desk was not a thing to do but as Q had pointed out that he had it laying on a tray that all Double-O's returned their gear on and the tray had etched on it, DO NOT TOUCH. If Steve felt like he didn't need to read a warning then indeed he was doing the world a favor in possibly killing himself. M had overridden HR about it because live weapons were always moving around Q-Branch. The guns were in cases, and on trays and it was near impossible to keep them just in the firing range without adding a lot of work that could be saved for actually doing the parts of their jobs that mattered and not making sure that idiots didn't shot themselves in the foot.

The Double-O's had found it funny and now when one of them had to go to accounting to explain why they needed this for that for a mission or why they did anything on a mission, all of them would make sure that Steve knew that they were armed and to not touch their guns for fear of shooting someone. Q was actually shocked that Steve was still working there because really the Double-O's did it outside of the accounting offices as well. The mess, the hallways, and one memorable occasion Alec did it when the PM had been visiting, and Alec had been his escort around. Steve was coming up to drop off papers for M and Alec had seen him and made sure to point out where all of the guns in the room were and that Steve needed not to touch them. The PM had thankfully found it funny, but Steve had been so red in the face that he hadn't left the accounting offices except to leave for the day for two weeks.

"You know that you can't hide out here all the time," The Queen said as she sat down beside where Q had ended up, in front of the roses again.

"No, I can't, but I've not wrapped my head around what I want to do much less what I think James will do so that I can make sure not to do what he wants me to do and, therefore, fall into his trap."

"Mycroft has requested to be able to see you again. Sherlock actually asked nicely again, so I assume it's the doctor man who is living with him and not Sherlock. I'm almost tempted to let him in but tell him and Mycroft that he can only come in like he was dressed before."

"Mycroft would have a heart attack if you did that."

"A lady has to have her fun somewhere, and at least that would liven up this castle. I'm sure that the staff, especially the females and males who lean to males would love it. Many did the last time."

"I still love him so much, but he hurt me."

"Then make him do all of the work, make him show you that he knows that you are worth the trouble of correcting his mistake."

"You hold more esteem for my ability to not cave the first time that he looks at me."

"He's a very nice man. I remember him well. I'm actually a little shocked that he's not tried to break into the palace."

"I don't know if he's afraid of what he can't do with his arm like it is or afraid that you might have a kill on sight order on him." Q kept the thought that James might not think him worth trying to get into the palace.

"Your Majesty," a guard said as he came around the edge of the wall that blocked off the section of the garden they were in.

Q and the Queen looked up to see he had an envelope in his hand. He didn't hand it to the Queen though. No, it was given to Q. Q opened it, recognizing the handwriting as James's. There was no postage stamp on it at all, and he looked up at the guard.

"Harold recognized him and took the letter himself. He's standing outside of the gates. I am unsure if he wants a written or verbal reply."

Q pulled the photo out of the envelope, and he couldn't help but laugh as he saw a pile of his cardigans on a bed that was no his own. Written in red marker on the edge of the photo said that until Q agreed to a date, James was going to hold his cardigan's hostage. The Queen leaned over and read it. She laughed.

"Didn't that one boyfriend of yours in school do that when he thought you were studying too much at exams? Except it was your underwear."

"Yes and I just went out and bought more, but my cardigans are harder to replace as many are no longer available and I love them."

"Do you have a pen?" Q asked. The guard nodded and handed over a pen. Q flipped the picture and wrote on the back when and where he would meet him for a date but James had to be the one to secure the reservation. Q slipped the picture back into the envelope and handed it back to the guard as well as the pen. He grinned and knew that it wasn't a pleasant grin.

"Should I make sure that a car will get you there in time?" The Queen asked.

"Yes, I'll want to settle my cats back a home first. I'll need to get a suit aired as well."

"Oh, no. I'll have the best tailor come here with suits in your size. We are going to get you all dolled up for your date to make him see what he was missing."


	14. Chapter 14

James pulled on his suit jacket sleeve as he looked at the time. James had made the reservation for an hour before Q's time and was sitting and waiting. The time to play it safe was long past, and James just wanted to be what he was, a desperate man. James had not put on his best suit, he had not even put on the one that made him look his best. He had chosen the suit that Q liked him in best. James was willing to do whatever Q wanted to get Q back. Q wasn't late as he still had fifteen minutes before the time that Q had told him to make the reservation for. James had no clue what Q was going to be wearing. The restaurant was one of the most reserved in London, and there was a waiting list that was four months out, but James had been able to turn in a favor owed to him by a friend who got him a reservation. There was also the fact that he had to tip a few people a great deal, but it was just another thing in the list of things for James to do to show Q that he wanted this. He knew it was why Q chose this place.

Taking a sip of his wine, James looked around and stopped when he saw Q staring at him from across the way. James stood up, nearly knocking over the table in his rush to get up. His napkin fell to the floor, but James didn't care. Q was there. Q was actually there, before he was supposed to be as well. James assumed that Q would be late just to spite James, to make him sweat. James set his wine glass down and leaned over to grab his napkin with his held arm. The waitress was right there with a fresh one and a smile.

Q started toward James with a smile on his face. Q held out his hand, the one that would make James hold out his uninjured hand. It was flawless like Q had been doing it for years.

"James," Q said as he leaned in and kissed James's cheek. "You look good."

"Yes. Thank you. You do as well." James couldn't help but look at him. James knew that the suit had not been inside of Q's flat when James had been in there the day before. Whoever had been his tailor had done a perfect job on finding a shade of blue to go with his eyes. Q's eyes were his best feature that could be talked about in public, James thought, and this suit made James never want to look away from them.

Q sat down and laid his napkin over his lap before he looked at James. "We have a lot to talk about, James."

"Yes. I don't know if this is the place for all of it."

"I'll grant you that, but the first will tell me if I need to text my guard outside and tell them to come in. Why have you been stalking me for a month?"

The waitress came up right then with the bottle of wine and poured Q a glass. She looked between the men before she walked away. James figured that they would be watched the rest of the night carefully.

"Because I was a coward who wasn't ready to come to you and say that I was sorry for leaving as I did, sorry for saying what I said, and was too beholden to my image to come crawling back and begging your forgiveness." James had made a promise to himself, to be honest.

Q pulled his phone from his inside jacket pocket and started to type something out on it. James stopped himself from looking at the door to see if one of the Queen's guards, or even another Double-O came in to escort Q, or possibly James out. Q was unreadable when he looked up at James again.


	15. Chapter 15

Q watched the color drain from James's face as the door opened, but it was just another couple coming in for a romantic meal.

"I texted my guard that I was fine and he could leave. I will be texting when I am ready to go, and he will come back and pick me up. I will not be going home with you, even to get my cardigans."

"Alec is letting me crash at his place."

"At least until he burns it down," Q said. It provoked a smile from James that lit up his whole face, except his eyes. James's eyes were still haunted and sad.

"Yes, well it's Alec. So you have kittens?"

"Pipt and Woozy. Ozma and Mombi are tolerating them. It's quite funny actually to watch the kittens play with the girls." Q leaned back as their soups were set down in front of them. Q looked at James who was looking at him. "This smells wonderful."

"I'm glad you like everything so far," James said, and he relaxed even more in the seat.

Q knew that he would let James off long before others would think that it was time but Q was a softy inside and he loved James, despite everything. He knew that he would always love him.

"So what have you been doing for seven months?" Q asked.

"Traveling, running, hiding. I guess it all depends on your point of view. I realized over a month ago that it was what I was doing. I never thought myself a coward. Until it smacked me in the face. I came home and started to build up the reserves to talk to you."

"Why were you outside of my flat?"

"I'd made the decision to talk to you. I was going to go up there, but you were talking to someone that I couldn't see, and I thought you had moved on. I almost had the courage to go up there despite the fact that I thought your new beau was up there. Then the hitmen arrived. I didn't think. I alerted Alec who alerted MI6, but I could only see them dragging you out of the complex or leaving you dead in there. I admit that going inside without announcing myself was stupid. I do want to thank you for switching from the gun to the dart gun."

"I couldn't kill you, even when I thought you were kidnapping me for some reason. All I could think was that you had betrayed me and I wanted you to hurt for that. I knew that MI6 taking you would mean that you would be hurt for what you had done, or not hurt if they could prove that you had nothing to do with the men trying to breach my flat."

"Tanner told me that the Double-O's are wreaking havoc all over the world taking out the terrorists that were after you."

"I bring them home in the best condition that I can. They like me." Q knew that expecting every single one to come home had only ever been a pipe dream but Q brought home more agents than had come back before. Q even made sure that they had a place within MI6 to work or within another branch of the Government. James was the only one that had ever pushed away MI6 and Q.

"Of course they love you. To not love you means that they don't get the good toys. I learned your tricks early on, Q." James leaned forward, and it made Q lean in as well. "Every single Double-O wants to see that little smile you get on your face when they bring back the little things. I know that you boast a tea collection that spans the entire globe."

Q could only blush at that.

James talked about what he had done for the six months that he had been gone and Q filled him in on what Mombi and Ozma had been getting up to.

Just as dessert was being served, Q's phone went off. Q looked at it. It was a text to recall all active service agents. James's phone went off next, and then before anything could be said, Alec appeared in the doorway along with 001, Q's bodyguard for the night.

Nothing needed to be said as James tossed down money on the table and waved the waitress over. Q worked on drinking the water on the table as he had drunk too much wine. James boxed up dessert and laid a hand on Q's lower back to escort him out. Q didn't know how he felt about that. He looked at 001's face and saw that even Alec looked a little upset.

"Another attack on your flat, Q. This time while Moneypenny was there visiting the cats to help them calm down like you asked while you were on your date. She got them out, but the rest of the flat is destroyed. No one was home in the flat under yours but I would say that you won't be going anywhere without a bodyguard and M will probably feel safer if you just stayed inside of MI6," 001 said.

Q's words were stuck in his throat. The only thing that he could think about was his cats. All 001 said was that Moneypenny got them out.


	16. Chapter 16

James knew that Q was in shock. The two Double-O's looked like they wanted to intervene on James escorting Q out but as Q had not said anything of dissent to James for touching him, they were loathed to separate the two. Instead, 001 took the lead in escorting them from the restaurant with Alec taking the back. James trusted Alec better in that position than he would 001. The town car that 001 had used to drive Q there was waiting in the valet parking drop off/pick up point, and a very scared valet was as far from them as he could get.

"I thought that the terrorists were contained."

"So did we," Alec said. 001 opened the door to the back seat before opening the door to the driver's seat and getting in. James ushered Q into the back seat and followed after Q was settled. Alec ran around the car after shutting the door and climbed into the passenger seat in the front. An earpiece was tossed back to James, and he started to hand it to Q when he saw Q tapping one already in his ear.

"Sit rep," Q said in his best Quartermaster voice.

"Moneypenny has your cats in the room you took over in the tunnels. The only cat with any injuries is Mombi, and it's from where she evaded Moneypenny and attacked one of the invaders that were first to breach the flat. She went for the eyes and clawed both out. She has bruises, and that is it. Ozma stayed with the kittens and Moneypenny. If I knew better, I would swear that they were protecting Moneypenny instead of the other way around. Mombie's attack on the first invader gave Moneypenny time to get her gun out and shoot the man. He is the only one to survive the attack as she dropped him and between the shot to the shoulder and the eyes, he didn't get up again until it was all over." Mallory sounded very pissed off, and James wondered how much shit was going to happen. MI5 was the domestic and hated when MI6 took matters into their own hands, but if MI5 couldn't keep terrorists out, MI6 was going to protect its own.

"And?"

"It seems that the trail that we followed before was not a true trail," R said, and she sounded agitated. "We handled the trace outside of London but something was interesting found on one of the men, and we are running every single scan on it that we can. It's a ring. A simple metal band with an octopus on it. We have no trace of it anywhere in any database. We will find it."

"Get my system up and running, R. I will be taking over Q-Branch, despite what others want."

Mallory cleared his throat. "You have the okay to do whatever you need to, Q. I've already alerted MI5 and Home Office that things might get a little dicey between us and our allies if they are found to be harboring those who are trying to kill my Quartermaster. Bond as soon as you get here, go to Elaine in Q-Branch and she will kit you up for protection. The QUartermaster does not leave your sight, I'm sorry Q but even to use the restroom. All food will be tested before you eat it and all drinks will be treated the same. Bond, anything happens to him and getting shot off a bridge by Moneypenny will be your fondest memory."

The line crackled, and James could only hear the sound of Q-Branch. James wasn't sure what could be said after that. He looked Q who was typing away on his phone. James knew that he would talk when he wanted, and right now Q was absorbed in something.


	17. Chapter 17

Q didn't stop worrying until he allowed to see his cats. James had wanted to stop by Q-Branch first to get him kitted out to be able to actually protect Q before taking him to the room a little ways down the tunnels from Q-Branch. The tunnels were massive, and there were smaller rooms and bigger tunnels that led off the main tunnels. Q had taken over one that was closest to the branch and the biggest. He had turned it into a bunker of sorts, and there was a bed as well as a server and enough of a computer system that he could probably take down the free world from inside of there. 

The cats were curled on the bed, and Ozma was the first one up. She ran to the end of the bed and started to cry for Q. Q dropped down on the end and picked her up to cuddle her. Mombi made her way toward Q very slowly, showing her pain the slowness. Before Q could touch her, she realized that Q was not alone in the room. Mombi fixed her eyes on James. Mombi let out a hiss when James took a step toward her. Mombi had been Q's cat before James had come into their lives. Mombi had taken to James very quickly and had missed him just as much when he had left. 

Q looked and saw that the door was shut. The kittens were still sleeping in the middle of the bed. Q gently petted down Mombi's back and hoped that it calmed her down. Her eyes never left James. 

"I have a feeling Miss Mombi, that you are going to be harder to win over than your master." James sunk down to his feet at the edge of the bed where Mombi was. He didn't reach out to touch her or do anything really but instead just stared at her. "I'd explain to you about the folly of saving someone from pain by hurting them, but all you know is that you loved me I left you, and you knew that me leaving is what hurt your master. I'll take your hisses and the cold shoulder." I'll take whatever you give me until you realize that I am not leaving." 

Q pulled Ozma up closer to him and buried his face in her fur. He couldn't help the tears that started. Ozma made a pitiful noise when the wet started to seep into her fur, but she didn't wiggle to get away. Q felt James's hand on his knee, and he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to shove James away because hurting him wasn't in Q's make-up. He didn't lash out to hurt when he was hurting. He had seen it done too much to want to hurt anyone like that. James had done it to him, just for different reasons than making Q hurt because he was hurting. He had hurt to save, but it had the same effect. 

James didn't push more than that. He kept his hand a strong presence on Q's knee, giving him support but didn't do more than that. Mombi pushed her head into Q's other leg, and Q let Ozma fall gently onto his lap before he looked at his other girl. Ozma jumped down before jumping back up onto the bed and curling around the kittens. Mombi climbed gently into Q's lap and laid along it, nestled between Q's thighs. 

"If the man who hurt her weren't already dead, I'd have a few words laid into his skin with my fists," Q said.

"You aren't a violent man, Q. Don't let them turn you into one," James said.

"You don't know what I am anymore, James." Q looked at James's face and let all of his anger show on it. "You don't know what I have become in the months that you have been gone. You don't know a damned thing about me anymore. Get the bloody hell out of here."

James stood up and nodded before he left the room. Q knew that he would be right there when Q was ready to get to work to find out what the hell was going on. James leaving had turned Q colder in a way that Q was sure that Mycroft was happy about because it meant that he was more like him. Q didn't care. 

The love of your life walking out on you changed you, no matter who you were. Mombi shifted on Q's lap and moved down to where she was nestled into his side. Q gently tipped himself onto his side to where all of his cats could cuddle him. Pipt woke up and meowed a greeting before starting to purr and rub onto Q's face. Woozy pranced around to get to the hair on the nape of Q's neck and settled in there. Mombi cuddled into Q's sort of lap since he wasn't sitting down and Ozma crawled up onto Q's shoulder and laid along his arm.


	18. Chapter 18

James wasn't sure of the Q that was going to exit the bedroom. James hadn't meant to upset the man, but he hadn't liked what he saw of Q in those seconds. Q hadn't been violent even when he killed someone before. Q had blown up people, set devices to overheat and start a fire, even used a drone to shoot someone, but it had always been in the name of protection. Q had never been malicious in his killing. 

After taking out a compound in Indonesia, Q had a higher body count than most of the Double-O's in the program. James couldn't equate the man he just saw crying over his cat getting bruised up and a man who would kill out of malice. Q was correct though that James didn't know the man that Q was now. 

It was an hour later that Q emerged from the room. He was put together and looked every bit the quartermaster that he had been when James had first met him. Q didn't even look at James as he started down the tunnel toward where his branch was. There was nothing to do but follow him. James checked his gun as they emerged into the bustling Q-Branch. 

"I want Ford and Oliver up with me," Q called out. 

James knew both of them and knew that outside of Q and R, they were the best hackers in MI6's employ. James watched as Q took to the system that James had always linked with Q in his mind. The one that had him standing up at the front of the branch in all of his glory. There were two other workstations there now. Smaller but no less powerful James assumed. 

"R where are the results on the ring?" Q asked.

R stepped up and handed Q a piece of paper but glanced at James as she did. It wasn't a good look. It was a worried looked.

"I see send that to my station please." 

It was a habit for James to step up behind Q. He saw Q tense up, but when Q didn't demand he step back, James stayed where he was. Names popped up, and James knew every single one of them. They all had a single thing in common, him. 

"Well, well. Let's see where this all leads." Typed a few things and from somewhere behind a computer made a noise.

"We have a match on the last DNA strand."

"He's dead," James said as the name of the boy he once thought of as his brother popped up on the screen. James hadn't thought about him in years.

"That I'm well aware of however this DNA sample was just days old and planted. It's all too neat. Oliver, I want you to do five different samples of age progression on Mister Oberhauser and start to look for him. Set the rate at fifty percent on matches and do a visual inspection on all matches. Ford, I want you to find where these men started their trek to get to me. Everyone else, see who else arrived in London by every means at roughly the same time as the men that blew up my flat. If there are friends anywhere, I want them found."

There were no words as the members of the branch took off to work. Q never needed an acknowledgment about it. He preferred they left him alone to do his work while they did their own. James's shoulder was starting to ache, and he tried to rotate it to relieve the pain, but it wouldn't go away.

"Get a sling if you are going to sit there and move constantly," Q uttered without even turning around to look at James. 

James stiffened in his seat but didn't move. He couldn't leave to get a sling. James was Q's bodyguard, no matter where Q was. M was afraid of a mole. 

"Quartermaster," a new voice said. Q's spine stiffened even more at the sound. He didn't stop his typing, but he did dismiss a screen. The pictures disappeared, and the names became numbers. There was a spot on Q's table where James used to sit when he was keeping Q company at night. Q's hand moved and touched it before going back. James pushed himself out of his chair one handed and took the steps needed to put him on the spot before he jumped up to sit there. The only people that James had his back to was Ford and Oliver. 

The man who spoke stopped a few feet behind Q and grinned at Q's ass. 

"Mister Denbigh," Q said. 

"Please, Max, Quartermaster."

"What can I do for you."

"Actually, I came to offer my services and the services of Nine Eyes."

"It's really just One Eye isn't it, since it didn't pass anywhere but here in England."


	19. Chapter 19

Q didn't stop on his work but made it so that Denbigh couldn't read it. He was glad that James understood what he wanted when he patted what had been called Bond's Seat by many. Denbigh was still smarting over the failed merger and the even more significant failure of his global spy network. It had been Q that thought it weird that the nine countries where Nine Eyes was supposed to go live were hit with terrorist plans just before voting. Q still wasn't sure that Denbigh wasn't a part of it, but he had been cleared, and some of his staff killed for treason for colluding with terrorists. 

"Who is this?" Denbigh asked, and while Q couldn't see him, he was pretty sure that Denbigh was talking about James.

"He's my bodyguard. Given everything that has happened, M thinks that I need a guard."

"He looks a little lame to be a guard."

"He could probably still kill you before you even blinked but don't worry, I keep him leashed."

"You never said yes or no."

"No. I don't need One Eye to help me figure out what is going on with the people who are after me."

"Step back," James growled. 

Q looked into the mirror that was up on the wall and showed him who was behind him. It looked like Denbigh was trying to get closer to Q. Q trusted that James would handle him and kept his back to the man. 

"The Quartermaster and I are friends."

"Coworkers, Mister Denbigh and I don't see us ever crossing the line from coworkers to friends or the line from friends to lovers like you want."

"You can't mourn that man that left you forever, Q."

That did make Q turn around, but James beat him to the punch and slipped off of the table, taking a step that kept him between Q and Denbigh. James made no further moves though, and Q was quite happy with that.

"You have no say in my personal relationships, Mister Denbigh and you will leave Q-Branch and consider your access revoked. Try and enter again and I'll have you brought up on harassment charges with whoever will let them stick. I have told you again and again that I am not interested in you. You might think yourself the next coming of the Lord of Hacking but your skills are bloody shite and I do better work on the days I am hungover than you on your best day. Leave my branch and never return."

"You'll regret this, Quartermaster," Denbigh said, but he didn't make a single move to leave.

"I think that the Quartermaster asked you to leave," Tanner said from behind Denbigh. 

Q looked up to see not only Tanner but Moneypenny and M as well. 

"Gareth," Denbigh said as he turned to take in the trio. 

M just glared at him. 

"Let's head up to my office to discuss this and your ability to take no for an answer. Since you so were so blase about your mention of Q's previous lover, you might want the rest of that information. Q's former lover was James Bond, Agent 007."

"Yes?" Denbigh asked.

"The man is standing between you and Q," Moneypenny said. 

Denbigh turned to look at James, and when James grinned at him, Denbigh startled and started toward Moneypenny. When the trio and Denbigh were through the door, R stepped up and hit a button and the doors seemingly locked down. 

"I'll send an email to Tanner and Moneypenny," Q said before he turned back to his computer. He felt James at his back, and he could feel his indecision about what to do and what he would get away with. Q wasn't sure what he wanted, but a touch would be good. Something to calm him down. Q let his shoulders slump down a little, and it was just seconds later that he felt James settle his hands on Q's shoulder and gave them a few seconds of rubbing before he took his spot back on the tabletop.


	20. Chapter 20

James watched Q as he worked. The noise in the branch disappeared over time, and after a little while, James had to move back to the chair. Dinner was brought in by Tanner and Moneypenny. It was simple fish and chips but easy enough to be devoured. Q ate his one-handed as he worked on whatever he was doing that had to do with the wimpy man who had been in there before. 

Max Denbigh had tried to take what wasn't his. While James didn't have a claim on Q at the moment, Q made it plain that he didn't want Denbigh's attention and that rankled James a lot. After the Q-Branchers were fed, James looked at Moneypenny and realized that she wanted to talk. The rest of the branch was still at their desks so James took a few more steps away from Q than he wanted to go so that he and Moneypenny could talk.

"Denbigh has been upset since his venture into protecting the country by spying on it religiously was felled. He doesn't know that Q is the one to fell it. We let MI5 take that credit so that eyes weren't drawn here. He's been hitting on Q since day one, no matter how many times that Q has told him that he wants nothing to do with him."

"Why is he so...wanting of Q?"

"That's what Q thinks as well, that there is a reason behind it and it's not sex. Q knows that he's pretty to many and that he draws a lot of eyes. Given how dead set Denbigh is on bedding him, we think there is more as well unfortunately by the time that it was figured out Q had told him no enough that him all of a sudden falling into his arms is going cause more problems."

"You sound like there is a, however, coming after that."

"Tanner and I were discussing this while taking care of food for the boffins. I outed you as the past lover who broke his heart, and we might be able to spin that the way that we want to make Denbigh think that Q would rather have anyone but you and is going to the first person that he knows is interested in him to make you upset."

"No need," Q said. 

James looked up and realized that he had not noticed Q going from his workstation to where James was standing with Moneypenny.

"Why not?"

"Because Denbigh has a connection to Mr. White and the man who supposedly died as a child Franz Oberhauser. And I have proof that Oberhauser is alive." Q looked smug, but there was a difference in the way that he looked at James. "Going back, I found where his trail picks up under his assumed name when he was young. I've started to track him from then forward, and I know where he is."

"I know that I can't go," James said raising his arm.

"I've already emailed everything to M, and he is going to send Alec. Enough personal connection to see it through to the end but not too close. Back up in the form of 004 and 5 will be there as well, on the edge. I have a satellite that we launched last year. It went up with a science one, and no one knows it's there except for me, well and M and now you two. Denbigh has no way of knowing to trace it. 0011 is setting up and following Denbigh with a backup of 009. If one is made, he will stay following him and be the obvious tail while 009 acts as the unobvious tail."

"0011 is the best at trailing someone," James said, and he meant it. The damned man had trailed James after a mission when the old M wanted to make sure he wasn't going to do something stupid. Q opened his mouth to talk, but a yawn took over. "Let's get you settled into bed. You've got food in your tum, and you know that after this long up, you will crash."

"I know. I have my station locked down, and not even R can get into it. If I go to sleep now, I can get back into a normal sleep pattern." Q turned on his heel and started toward his room. James followed behind. He was going to stay outside the room and sleep sitting up if he had to. 

However, when they made it to the room, Q grabbed James hand and pulled him in. Q started to toe off his shoes, but they were laced too tight, so James dropped down and began to untie them. Q balanced himself on James's shoulder when he raised his foot up so James could remove the shoe and his socks. It was repeated for the other one. James turned his back when he stood up to give Q privacy to strip off his clothes. The rustle of blankets sounded, and James turned back around to see Q blinking at him owlishly without his glasses. Q patted where his head was, and James realized there was no pillow there. James stripped down to his pants and got up onto the bed to sit across the head of the bed and lean his back into the wall. There was a pillow there for him to rest his back on and another pillow was handed to him for his head. Q settled his head onto James's thigh, and the second that James touched his head to comb out his hair gently, Q was relaxed and it was like between one breath and the next, Q was asleep.


	21. Chapter 21

James had trusted that it was safe to sleep once he was sure that Q was so when he woke up and Q was still asleep, James was a little worried. Until he realized that Q was being kept asleep by the purring of three of his cats that were scattered around his head. Mombi was the only one that wasn't. She was sleeping at James's hip closest to the door.

Under no illusions that this meant a damned thing other than Q needed sleep and he thought that using James as a pillow would do better than a real one. Q had slept like this a lot when his brain would race and not quiet. James would sit on the bed and run his fingers through Q's hair until his mind was calm and he was asleep. The purring of the cats would also help, and James was always thankful when they helped him out. 

The purring stopped all of a sudden and Mombi was on alert. She was standing at James's side and looking at the door. Then James heard it. Someone was picking the lock. The lights were out in the room, and only the glow from the small light above the door shone. It was enough for James to see shapes. 

James wrapped his good hand around Q's mouth, squeezing a little. Q startled a little but didn't move other than to reach up and tap James's hand three times with his pointer finger. Q sat up and moved slowly to the end of the bed where James wasn't, and he reached down and lifted up a gun. James grabbed his own gun from beside him on the bed. The cats all moved down to Q's end of the bed with Mombi sitting in front of the kittens. James petted her head and silently told her that she was a good girl. Mombi licked James's hand when he pulled it away. 

The door opened silently, but there was no movement other than that. Then a full minute later, someone crept into the room. The person wasn't wearing night vision goggles and had not turned on the lights in the room, so James knew that whatever was to happen, they wanted both of them dead. James raised up his gun and waited for the lights to blink green before he took his shot. The sound made the person move a little but not in enough time to miss the bullet but enough that it hit bone in the shoulder instead of meat. James heard the bone crunch and grimaced, but the person went down. The lights turned on, and James blinked away the sudden brightness to see a young woman on the floor, clutching her shot shoulder. She wasn't screaming or yelling, or even moaning and that worried James.

"Melinda. She works on keeping the computers inside of MI6 running. Software upgrades to the email program and such. She's mute, James. The shot will have been registered, and we will have security on their way."

"She's one of yours?"

"Yes and that gun has a laser sight on it. A new thing I'm working on. There is only a single prototype, and she had no way of getting to it without hacking into my personal safe in my office. I think you'll find she is poisoned as well. Slow acting but painful as hell."

Three guards stopped at the edge of the door, guns up and eyes bright. 

"One shooter," James said. 

"We have already alerted M."

"What time is it?" Q asked.

"JUst after six, Sir. M was already up, but he is going to rush in. We alerted Tanner as well."

"Get her to medical. Poison sample eighty-three was used on her, and she was shot, and it severely damaged her shoulder. The poison is not a risk to you."

"Can she walk?"

"No. Not now. Between the pain of the shoulder and the poison making her nerves seem like they are on fire, she'll be unable to do much at all."

James looked at Q. Q didn't like poisons but for him to use one on his safe meant that there were things inside of there that were important to national security. Especially to use a poison that didn't kill. 

"Q," Tanner said as he looked down at the body of the woman who had tried to kill at least Q but probably both of them. "M sends his apologies for almost not letting you use that poison on your safe."

Q just smiled and laughed as he picked up Ozma gently and cuddled her into his lap. Mombi chirped at James from the end of the bed. James reached out to pet her head. 

"Well, there is no time like now to get to work," Q said.

"After breakfast," James said. 

"Moneypenny is bringing it, and we are all to go to M's office." Tanner turned on his heel knowing that Q would follow him and that would make James follow even though he wanted to be anywhere but there. 

James waited for Q to get even with him before he helped direct the younger man over the woman on the floor. When they passed her, she started to sign something. Q stared at her as she did, her hands and arms shaking and not working well at all. 

"What did she say, Sir?" one of the guards asked.

"She told me that I did not deserve the attention that Max gave me and I should die for that."

"She loved that little creep?"

"I'm sure that he helped that love along as well as her vendetta to kill me," Q said. Q shook his head and fell into step with James again, allowing James to pull him along.


	22. Chapter 22

Q watched the interrogation of Melinda at the hands of a retired agent who excelled at interrogation that actually worked. He also knew sign language and was the best to actually talk to her. Masterson didn't have to wait for a translator to finish what she was saying or hope that the translator was not shortening a word or changing something. There was a translator there, and Masterson was waiting for her to translate, but he wasn't relying on it. 

James was behind Q, trying to get him to go back to his branch but Q was having none of it.

"He deserves to die for turning down Max over and over again," the translator said for Melinda. It was the same thing over and over again. 

Moneypenny entered the room. 

"Good, Moneypenny tell Q that he needs..." James trailed off when Moneypenny handed Q his tablet. 

"R sent me up with this. She wants you to follow the trail that she did and agree or disagree."

Q tapped the screen, and it started to play a video. Video capture of the hacking trail that she had been on. Q watched from point A to point Z and smiled as he found what he had been looking for. It was small, but it was enough. 

"Tell R to get everyone on it. I'll be down soon." Q touched the door to the interrogation room, but James's hand on his shoulder stopped him from opening it. "I'm going in there, without you, James. I don't need a bulldog to protect me from a woman who is chained to a chair by hands and feet who was shot and had her collarbone broken and who is still shaking from the poison that I infected her with. If she started to get rowdy, please come in and save me but not until them."

"Yes, Q." James sounded like he was chewing nails, but he let go of Q and allowed him to enter the interrogation room.

"Ah, Quartermaster, right on time. Thank you so much for joining me," Masterson said. He winked at Q where Melinda couldn't see it. While Masterson had asked Q to join him, there was no set time, just when Q thought that it was time. 

Melinda asked Master what Q was doing there. The translator was slow to actually do her job as Q didn't think that she expected Melinda to just start talking. 

"I was invited," Q said before the translator was done with the second word. The translator frowned at Q. Q smiled back. "I think that your services are no longer needed."

Melinda signed that she was that she didn't trust Q to not twist her words given the vile snake of a human that he was. Q laughed and looked at Masterson. 

"She thinks I'm going to lie to you since I am a vile snake."

Masterson laughed. The translator stepped out of the room, and it was what was needed to send Melinda on a rant. Q and Masterson just watched her hands as she told the entire tale. Starting from the first time that Denbigh talked to her and asked her out as friends. Everything was always as friends, but Melinda thought that she was winning him over, getting him to like her instead of Q and then Q had to go and start to get hurt, and Denbigh came running. Melinda knew that she needed to get rid of Q and then she could hold Denbigh get over him and love her instead, someone worthy of Denbigh's love.

Q didn't say anything at all, he just looked at Masterson and frowned.

"She'll probably be stuck in the prison ward for the entirety of the rest of her life," Masterson said. 

"I agree. Melinda, Max Denbigh is gay. He's never tried to even kiss a girl. He used to try and get to me, and when it became that I wasn't going to dance to his tune, he used you to try and kill me. He's the illegitimate son of a man who is hell-bent on eradicating every single aspect of James Bond's life that is happy, I'm a very happy part and up until James came back to England, I was going to be left alone because James left me."

"Illegitimate really?" Masterson asked.

"There was only a single file that was even found that listed his actual father. It was not long actually after he killed his father because his father had taken in James. The month raised Denbigh, but when Denbigh proved to be good at computers, the father stepped back into the picture. I'm not even sure that Denbigh knows that he's his father."

"Damn. Thanks, Q. I'll finish up in here and make sure that we got everything and then I'll send someone from psych to talk to her and see if she can be helped." Masterson stuck out his hand for Q to shake and Q did before turning to leave the room. James was right there, in Q's way. Q pulled the door shut and glanced to see that everyone else who had been in the room was gone. 

"We are going to do this now?" Q asked.

"He's really Oberhauser's son?"

"According to what R just found, yes. Underage when he was conceived but his. We are running the DNA now. The mother died about ten years back, and I'm pretty sure it was at the hands of Oberhauser, he can't manipulate a child he didn't raise with the other parent there. He's already proven himself capable of murder, he killed his father when he was a teen."

"And he's trying to claim that he's behind...everything? Vesper, M, Silva, Green, all of it?"

"I think that he's trying to make us think that he's the author behind all of your woes. He wants you to go after him, and I won't allow that."

"That's why you sent the other agents?"

"With your arm, you couldn't go, and you would get too emotional. He wanted to lure you out, let's see how he likes getting other Double-O's instead." 

"You think that the reason you were attacked, was me?"

"No. I was attacked because of Franz Oberhauser, I refuse to call him by the made-up name that he's given himself, has made you the bad guy in his story and is taking it out on everyone around you. Whether he had a hand in killing Vesper or not, M or not, you are not the reason. He's a child who never grew up and is upset that his father took in a child that he cared for when his parents died. I hear it's a problem with only children. I wouldn't know. I was well aware I was the third from the second I could think for myself."

James looked at Q's face, looking for something there. It took Q three seconds to figure out what James was looking for permission. Q wondered what he would do if he didn't get it. James's eyes narrowed and hardened before he smirked and grabbed Q's hands. 

Q barely had time to breathe before he was spun around to the wall behind James, his hands slammed into it, above his head and his lips taken in a kiss.


	23. Chapter 23

James figured that someone was going to stop them, but no one did. Even the boffins inside of Q-Branch didn't stop their leader to talk to him. It was either the look on their faces or the purposefulness of their strides that kept everyone away from them. James was shocked that Q didn't divert at his workstation to continue working. James hadn't stopped kissing Q until the younger man gave in and his hands stopped pressing to escape James's hold. Q had kissed James like it was their last day on Earth and it was sort of freaking out James, but he was at least holding it together until they got to Q's room. 

The cats were asleep on the pile of Q's clothes that were in the corner when the code to let them into the room was input. The two older cats looked up but laid their head back down. They knew the look of their human when he was about to get laid, they had known it since about the third time that James had come back to Q's. 

James grabbed Q's face and kissed him again, holding him in place and taking what he wanted. Q's fingers weren't idle, not having anything else to do, James felt them start to work on the buttons of James's shirt. Q was wearing a cardigan, and it would just need to be pulled off. James didn't stop kissing Q until he felt nimble fingers on his trousers, working them open. James looked at the door when he pulled back. It was locked. He stripped off the suit piece by piece but didn't throw it onto the floor. He needed to not get cat hair on it. If he put it down, Mombi would be right there so instead James tossed it over the server rack. He made sure that he wasn't covering a vent before looking back at Q. Q's eyes were raking over James's body. 

There was hunger and sadness warring in Q's eyes, so James stepped up and let Q touch. Q's hands went right to James's messed up shoulder, tracing the scars from the surgeries to try and fix it but it was impossible. James had gone from not being able to move at all to being able to move some. 

"If I had done what you said, this wouldn't have happened."

"I know," Q whispered. He leaned in and kissed the still angry looking scar from where the initial damage had been done when James had been tortured. "I haven't forgiven you. You are going to have to work for a long time to make up for the stupid shit that you pulled, but I need..."

"You need to feel alive. Strip off your cardigan for me please." James was under no illusions that he was getting this because Q wanted the rush of orgasm and if James hadn't been there, someone else would have been used. Double-O's were well aware of the want to feel alive, and any of them would have done as the Quartermaster asked. 

Q took off only the cardigan and didn't make another move. He had on an undershirt, and when James waved his hand, Q took that off. There were some things that James hadn't got good at and stripping someone else and having it look and feel good wasn't one. With time, if Q allowed him, it would happen, but right then James didn't want to hurt Q with a hard tug in the wrong place. Trousers though, James could do that. 

James tugged Q closer with the button of his trousers before he unhooked it and worked the fly down. James's mouth kissed down Q's neck while he was doing it. Q's hands traced up and down James's sides and even around to his ass a few times. Q's hands were shaking, and James wasn't sure if it was arousal or him being scared. Q was of enough sound mind though to stop if it got to be too much. 

"Where's your lube?" James asked. 

"Drawer of the desk," Q answered, and he pulled back enough to point.

"Lie down, Q." James turned to get the lube and turned back to look at the cats, all of them were asleep again, at least until Q started to blabber. 

Q was lying on the bed, gloriously naked and James grinned as he saw that Q was fully aroused and that James's glance over his body just made his cock jerk. James climbed onto the bed between Q's spread legs. 

"Don't," Q warned when James opened his mouth to tell Q that he loved him. James nodded and set about lubing up his fingers. Q wanted hard and fast and full of everything that made him feel alive, and James could do that. Declarations would come after.


	24. Chapter 24

Q watched the dots that were his three returned Double-O's. Alec looked the worst off when he pushed opened the doors of the branch. 004 and 005 were behind him. 009 and 0011 had already been recalled with 001 taking over watching Denbigh for the short time it took to figure out the next step. The rest of the Double-O's were still out in the world wreaking havoc in the name of MI6. 

"You know with James right there at your shoulder and with 009 and 11 standing in mock parade rest behind your workstation, you look like a warlord."

"Isn't that what I am? I send you off to make war for England." Q smiled at the agents as they found chairs to sit in. Alec rolled two to the sides. 0011 and 009 took those. James stayed at his spot on top of Q's workstation. If he was a little closer than he normally sat, Q wasn't going to say anything, even with Alec's eyes raised a little. "Tell me."

"Oberhauser was not expecting us. I got off the train, and a car met me, but the driver was shocked to see me. Still, I was taken to the compound. You were right that radio silence was the way to go. Oberhauser was focused on me, once he realized that I was coming in James's place to help protect my friend," Alec said. 

"The bastard didn't see us coming, and we were able to plant the explosives that you gave us. I sent 005 in to find Alec after three hours. He was dressed in a nice suit that was a little off in size, too big. Probably taken from a guard. I did find a closet that had suits that were perfectly in James's size. It was creepy as fuck," 004 said. 

Q nodded. They had already given their official debrief to M and Tanner, but this was more personal and for James more than anything else. 

"I got all of the information off of their hard drives I think before we blew them." 

"How many did it take?" Q asked as 004 handed over a Ziploc bag that was full of USB drives that were as big as Q-Branch could get them. They were larger in storage size than anything that was available over the regular market, and once a few things got approved, MI6 would start to sell them as a new leader innovative technology. Q had already started up what was being considered a think tank of the brightest and best of English minds. It would help MI6 support the budget of toys that agents went through and lightened Q-Branch demands for regular support from the government. It was all approved by Home Office, and all of the money was going right to Q-Branch with no one else being able to touch it. 

"All of them. That program you gave me on that drive was perfectly awesome."

"Of course it was. So what happened after you blew the place?"

"Our backup confirmed no active life signs, and I put a bullet in the brain of Oberhauser myself," Alec said. 

005 stood up and handed over a tablet. 

"Taken from Oberhauser's bedroom." He didn't sit down as Q took the tablet and unlocked it. It wasn't passworded at all, but given that Oberhauser didn't expect anyone in his bedroom, he wasn't shocked. 

There was a video already pulled up on the screen, and Q played it, his stomach turning at the content. Oberhauser was a sick person, mentally, Q knew that but watching the video and knowing that in some way, physically or mentally, he had got off on it proved it. 

"So Denbigh has a Daddy complex and needs to submit to older men," James said with a grin on his face. "We can work with that. Is Alistair still the trainer for withstanding torture?" 

"Yes," all the Double-O's stated. 

"He adores beating on the asses of little boys. He just makes sure that they are legal. I'm sure if we look at sites, we can find Denbigh on them."

"No need," Q said as he closed the video and found the application for a sex website, it was logged in as Denbigh and there was a message from several older men on there. Checking the deleted ones, Q figured out what was ignored and what wasn't. "R set Alistair up with a profile, and I'll add what is needed." 

Q handed off the tablet. It wouldn't be long before she had it set up. 004 left without being dismissed, to go and get Alistair, Q imagined. It would at least get Denbigh to them, and with the right pressure, Denbigh would probably sing like a little bird. They had enough to kill Denbigh for treason but getting him to spill everything would be better.


	25. Chapter 25

James had been given a tablet to help and keep him entertained as Q worked through all of the documents that were found on the hard drive. The reach of SPECTRE as the group that Oberhauser had run was massive, but for James, it was something that didn't matter anymore. The threat to Q was gone, and that meant that Q needed a place to live. James was staying with Alec, and there was not enough room for Q there as well, even if Q would want to stay there. He didn't, and James knew that. 

An email had been sent off to Moneypenny. Minutes later, a list of flats and even a few small houses were emailed back to Jack. Everything that was on the list of current residences that were approved by MI6 for an immediate move into. James remembered the things that Q had said that he hated about his flat and had removed those that matched those complaints. There were few flats left after that, so James turned to the list of houses. All of the houses were small enough for a single person but also big enough for two and would have plenty of room for the cats, all four of them. There would be room for James as well when the time came if it came. 

It took two hours for James to figure out that none of the ones that Moneypenny sent would work for Q. He would hate every single one of them from location to size, and the things that Q hated about his old flat. 

"Q," Tanner said as he stepped up behind Q, far enough back to where Q could look up and see him in the mirror. "You forwarded several things to M for him to look at."

"Yes, to give to allies as he saw fit. And?"

"You and Bond are needed up in his office to discuss something that you missed in the files. R can work on what you are doing yes?" Tanner looked upset but not at Q but for Q. 

James knew that whatever it was, it wasn't good. 

"006 has reported in that Alistair has made contact with Denbigh and they are already on their way to Alistair's flat. You were right that Denbigh had never concerned himself with the men in the aspect of MI6 that were an active threat to SPECTRE."

"Given that M usually comes to me when I'm working on something like this, I assume that he didn't want a spectacle. Given that he wants James with us, that means that it has to do with a threat to me or to James and not something to do with the job as it stands. I'll be up as soon as I get to the point of stopping which will be in ten minutes I'll be done with this drive R can take over for me after that."

"Yes, Q. I'll get something sent up to nibble on as well. Coffee and tea for the both of you?"

"Just tea," James said. Tanner nodded and turned on his heel to leave. 

James watched as Q finished the drive in a single minute before he tossed it into the finished bin. Q opened a file next. He was looking through the data. He wanted to know what it was before he went up and James couldn't fault him. James set his tablet down and moved to stand behind Q, watching him work. James saw it at the same time that Q did. There was a banker who Q had not found the name of that was supposed to make sure that the contract on Q's life was completed and if Oberhauser was killed, the second contract on James's life was put into place and paid off. 

"Well fuck," Q said.


	26. Chapter 26

Q knew that he was a little shit when he wanted to be, and right now he was pissed off, and M knew it. There was a reason that his two brothers were there. There was no reason at all for Mycroft to be there and even less of a reason for Sherlock to be there. 

M knew that Q would never agree to do what M wanted him to. Not without pressure and his brother's being there is only pressure that he could wield. Q glared at Mycroft. 

"The flat is secure and ready for whatever security you want," Mycroft said. 

"No."

"Quin."

"No." 

"Quintavius Xavier Holmes."

"Pulling out my full name is not going to make me change my mind, Mycroft. I would rather stay here in my war bunker as Sherlock calls it." Q stood up and brushed at lint that wasn't on his pants. 

"No," M said. 

Q looked at M so fast that the world actually spun a little bit. 

"No?"

"This is an office building, while we are good with the few nights here and there and while we were working out your long-term protection plans.You are not going to be authorized to sleep long term in the room you took over."

"Fine." 

Q spun on his heel and started toward the door. He didn't even say a word, and James followed him. Q walked right through the halls and down into the are of the tunnels that was Q-Branches designated area. He pointed at a spot for James to stand at and James knew that he was pissed. That he was upset, so James stayed there while Q went into his office and typed up a few things. It took half an hour for Q to type up what he wanted. After that, he went to collect his cats. The carriers for the kittens and Mombi and Ozma were in the hall outside the door. 

James picked up the carriers with a word and set the larger one down with the door opened. As soon as he put a shirt of Q's inside Ozma and Mombi jumped in. Q picked up other clothes and stuffed into the one for Pipt and Woozy before picking up the kittens and putting them in. Q sent a message on his phone before he walked down the tunnel, away from Q-Branch.

"I thought they put alarms on your last escape route," James said, carrying the cat carrier with the adult cats in it. Q had the kittens as well as his laptop bag. 

"Yes, but I have four more. Come along, James. You'll soon be rid of me."

"Q, I am not supposed to leave your side."

"Not for much longer."

"What stupid thing are you doing?"

"If I can't stay here, I will have to find a new place to live and if M is having me live with you no matter where I am. I figure I might as well go someplace that will be hard for any other assassin to get to me or you at."

"Are we really going back to the Palace?"

"It's the only place that I know that I can go where no one is going to make me do something that they think is in my best interest."

"Is living with me that bad?" James asked as he stopped and set down the cat carrier.

"No. It's not the living with you that I have an issue with. It's the fact that M and Mycroft sat in there and made up the decision on where I am going to live without talking to me first. I'm an adult that gets to make his own decisions. I'm sure that it's mostly Mycroft who is making it seem like he is making the best decision."

"They are worried about you."

"No, Mycroft wants to know what I am doing at all times. A place that he has control of is better than a place that he doesn't. If I weren't sure of what happened to my apartment I would blame him." 

"So you want a secondary plan, and you are going to the palace because?"

"No one is getting to me there. Not Mycroft, not M. If I didn't take you with me, you either."

"And those letters?"

"The less you know, the better."


	27. Chapter 27

"I think that I made a mistake," M said to Bill as Moneypenny left M's office with a letter that had been delivered by a courier. Bill recognized Q's precise writing on the envelope. There was another bit of writing in the bottom corner. Bill focused on it and saw that it was the signature of the Queen. 

"I think so, Sir." Bill swallowed and moved to the drink cart, pouring himself a double and downing it before he poured another for himself and filled the glass for M. Bill set the glass down at M's hand and he sat on the corner of M's desk to wait for the man to get the courage to take a drink or open the envelope. "He ran to the Queen, again?"

"I thought I was okay at the politics game, but I think that Mycroft Holmes put me into a corner and his way of doing it was the only thing that I saw that was good."

"We've housed the Quartermaster and all essential staff on site before. During World War II most of the staff stayed down in the tunnels. Lived there for most of the war."

"Yes, and our Quartermaster's home was invaded twice, and instead of letting him stay here I listened to his brother and tried to force him into a flat with Bond as his only protector. A place that he had no choice. I'm surprised the letter hasn't killed me yet."

"Can't know what's in it until you open it."

"No, I know that. I know, but I'm afraid that it's Q's resignation with no contingency at all."

"Bugger." Bill took the letter from M and set down his glass of scotch to open the letter himself. When the first thing that happened was Q's MI6 badge/keycard fell out, Bill knew that M was right. M sat back in his chair and down the entirety of the glass of scotch that Bill had poured him. He looked like he regretted that but wasn't regretting doing it and would probably do it again. Bill unfolded the letter, and it outlined the new hierarchy of Q-Branch as well as tended Q's resignation. There was a postscript that no matter what, even if M burnt the letter, there was no going back because there was a copy being sent to the Home Office as well as one on hand in the Queen's hand. That when M decided that his on hand agent to protect Q was no longer needed, the word only needed to be sent to the Palace and Bond would probably come back. Queen and country and all of that rubbish.

"He printed it on his printer here inside of MI6, Sir. I recognize the way that the Is don't have a full dot from where he had taken it apart to fix it and messed up something inside. It only messes up on the dot in the lower case Is and not the Js."

"Buggery fuck, Tanner. I'm going to have a revolt from Q-Branch as well as the Double-O's."

"Yes, Sir." Bill wondered if now was a time for him to get out as well. He didn't need to deal with the shit of people not doing what they were supposed to, and dead brother's coming back for vengeance and possibly toppling England while he did it, not even meaning to in this instance.

"Get Moneypenny in here. Between the three of us, we can work on something that will woo Q back because we both know that without him we aren't going to have a Q-Branch and the Double-O's will refuse to do what they are told on missions. Moneypenny will help us."

"Or she will quit," Bill said trying to lighten the mood but it fell flat. "Right away, Sir."


	28. Chapter 28

James watched Q as he looked at the letter that delivered by Moneypenny to the hands of the guards who were doing a damned good job at keeping everyone way from Q and James as they wandered the grounds on the interior of the Palace. According to the primary guard who had been assigned to Q to escort them around, Moneypenny was awaiting an answer. 

Q looked at James and handed over the letter. They had been in the castle for a week, a wing in the guest area had been given to them, and they only left it when they wanted. Inside of the wing, no one followed them, the guards stayed outside of it. James was even allowed to carry his gun around and only got a few looks. They had tea with the Queen every single afternoon, and James could see the affection that she had for Q and saw why she did whatever he wanted when it came making him happy. 

"Tell Miss Moneypenny that I will there at the meeting when the time comes, and that is the only answer that she is going to get. Also please let the driver that has been assigned to us that we will need to be driven to Vauxhall in five hours and to wait as we might be coming back here."

"Of course," the guard said. 

Q reached out his hand, and James linked his with his Q's and allowed himself to be pulled forward. 

"Let's go back to our rooms," Q said as James wrapped his arms around Q. 

James nodded his agreement and allowed Q to take the lead. While there had been no kisses or anything close to sex since Q wanted to be reaffirmed that he was alive, James was quite content. Q allowed James to hold his hand and they talked a lot. At night, James slept in bed with Q, holding him tight. Q woke with a few nightmares over the week, but nothing that talking with James didn't fix. It was the start of a better foundation for a better relationship, and while it left James a little frustrated, it was worth it all. It was worth everything that happened and didn't happen in the future. 

There was a huge chair in the far corner of the sitting room in the suite Q had picked for them. Q pushed James down into that chair and sat in his lap. James opened his mouth to tell Q that it wasn't a good idea if he didn't want to feel James's cock but the way that Q looked at him, James snapped his mouth shut. 

"M's apology is very heartfelt, and I believe him."

"I do too."

"I don't mind having an agent staying with me, even you. I trust you to protect me. That was never the problem."

"I know, Q."

"Mycroft thinks that what he thinks it the best. It's why he and Sherlock do not get along. The whole thing with him and Sherlock there was all Mycroft's idea. Sherlock messaged me through secure channels about it. Sherlock thought that I was being a stupid idiot and refusing protection because that is what Mycroft said. Sherlock did not know that I had not even been told any of it and hadn't refused a thing yet. Sherlock is pissed at Mycroft, and it's going to be months if not years before he speaks to him willingly again."

"Your family holidays must be a fun time."

"I'm sure that I can talk Sherlock into one later. We can make it a good one by bringing dieting things and very sweet things that Mycroft will hate us for bringing, especially once Sherlock memorizes the calories in each. We did that once when we were younger. Mummy didn't hear us, so it seemed like he was trying to get us in trouble."

"Before or after that holiday?"


	29. Chapter 29

"So you know about that?" Q asked, and he looked a little ashamed.

"I'm quite glad that I didn't know it before. I remember you well when you were younger, and I had trouble getting those two parts linked in my head. You were quite the little scamp."

"Sherlock hated it because I talked about you for weeks after and then when he glued my mouth shut, I just dreamed about you instead. I think I've been half in love with you for years. M didn't tell me who I was meeting in the Gallery. She said I was meeting 007 but as I had last heard, 007 was dead so I figured a new agent had been assigned and then there you were in your beard and you were pissed off." 

"You romanized me."

"No. I quite remember how foul-mouthed you were an uncouth when mother and father weren't around. I stayed up and listened to you and Alec talking. I knew exactly who you were, warts and all. You and he talked about the women and men you had seduced and the people you had killed for your jobs."

"And it didn't scare you?"

"No. I think it ruined me for any other job."

"You had no intention of actually quitting did you?"

"No. I knew that M would build his backbone and allow me to stay until I found a place that I didn't mind living in."

"Well, I was looking, seeing if I could find you options and give you what was left but given the things you whinge about the old flat and things you always said you wanted, there are none on MI6's list of ready to move into places. However, I have found a place that's not on the approved list but mainly because it's not technically on the market."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. 003 knows an old lady who is going to live with her daughter in France. It's an older home so it would take work to get it up to what you would want for a place but it's a home with a yard that is all bricked in. The old lady took care of the brick. 003 texted me the information, and it's in an approved neighborhood. You could hire contractors to get the wiring and anything else you want up to date and live in the tunnel for now."

"Let me see." Q tucked his head down onto James's shoulder and waited for him to show him everything on the phone. 003 had sent a lot of pictures about the place to James. The old lady would be happy to sell it without getting someone else in on it. James wrapped his bad arm around Q as much as he could, and Q tucked himself closer to give James more room to wrap the arm around him. James counted it as a win. 

Q became one with James and the chair as they talked about the pictures and what Q could do with each room. It was good to sit there with him and talk about the future and when a room was talked about for James too but some work out things in, James knew that they were going to be able to fix what James had broken.


	30. Chapter 30

Q laughed as he licked at the chocolate sauce that he had smeared on the side of James's cheek. He pulled back and saw the darkening of eyes that were fixed on him. Q swallowed and felt his own body start to respond. Dinner had been consumed, and the cake that James had made was mostly gone. There was a slice left for them to share for breakfast. It was their first night staying in the new house after all of the renovations were done and Q-Branch was done installing the new security system. Q and James bounced between staying in the tunnels during the work week and while missions were on and going back to Alec's when a mission wasn't on, and Q was given a few days off. 

The cats were running around and learning their new residence that included a small room that was just for them that allowed them to be shut up when there were visitors or just when there was cleaning or something else like that going on. 

"Quin," James whispered as he ducked his head down, letting his lips trace over Q's neck. 

"James," Q whispered back. He had been keeping his hands up but he knew what James wanted and it was something that Q wanted as well. James had stayed, stayed with Q and worked on things. It had been hard to get through all of the problems that James's disability had caused and his leaving because of it. Q nudged up James's head and looked him in the eye. "Let's go to bed. We can clean up in the morning."

"Yes," James near hissed as he leaned in and kissed Q. It was hard for Q to stop kissing him. It had been hard for a month to stop the snogging sessions at Alec's. Even though the room in the tunnel was Q's official residence, they didn't get to much there. Q was usually too tired. At Alec's though, it was hard not to go further than Q thought he was ready for. James hadn't pushed for more though, when Q asked to stop, James did. 

"I love you," Q whispered into James's ear as he wrapped his arms around James's neck. He pressed a kiss there before he stood up from the stool that he had been sitting on throughout dinner. James caught Q's hand and allowed Q to pull him along behind him. James pulled Q back into his body as they hit the door to the bedroom. 

"I love you, too, Quin. Another time, we can strip each other but tonight, let's just get naked and get in bed."

Q nodded his agreement and allowed James to let him go. Q stripped himself quickly and easily as he watched James do the same. James was good at getting himself naked for bed and into sleep clothes. 

"Are the cats out?"

"Yes."

"Good." James shut the door as Q slipped under the covers. It was cool out and Q didn't like being cold. James turned off the main light and Q turned on the single bedside lamp that was on James's side. James slipped under the covers as well, pulling Q close with his good arm. They slotted themselves together on their sides and leaned in to kiss. 

Q didn't care what they did but feeling James's hands all over his body along with the fever pitch the kisses were taking them to. Q gasped as James rolled them over with Q under him. Q's legs fell open and James slipped between them. James braced himself on his good arm and stared down at Q. His other arm was unable to actually prep Q but Q didn't care. He reached over for the lube that he had stashed in the side of the bed. He had made a small pocket and on his side, there was lube while James's side had a holster hidden inside the pocket and his gun was stored there. 

James leaned up against, taking the lube to prep Q for breaching. Q didn't want to offer to do it, James was set on doing it. This was their first time in over a year. Q didn't want to upset James, time would come for quick times where Q's ability to prep himself quickly would be good but tonight there was no rush. 

Q gasped as James fingered him. It was strange not to have James leaning over him for this but it was something that Q ha to get used to, James wasn't able to do it like that anymore. His hurt arm could hold Q in place but it couldn't prepare him in any meaningful fashion. 

"Ready?" James asked as he pulled his fingers free. James waited for the nod before he scooted up enough to press the head of his cock into Q. It wasn't long before James was in far enough that he didn't need to hold himself and that was when he leaned back down, rubbing his hand on the side of the bed to get rid of lube. James hiked up Q's legs and pressed himself as close as he could get to Q. Q exhaled quickly and James slipped the rest of the way in as he took Q's lips in a kiss. 

There were no shared words just shared breaths and kisses as their bodies strove for completion. Q rocked on James's cock as much as he could to help get them both there quickly. He shuddered through is orgasm, bringing James along with him.

After a few minutes of holding and just being together, locked in each other's embrace, Q got up to clean them both up. James pulled him close and they laid there in each other's arms as they drifted off to sleep.  
**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for following along on my little push into new territory for me and my writing. I hope you enjoyed this!


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